Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies (Stromata) Book VII

The result is that readers of the present day are often puzzled to know what he is driving at. It is his nature to fly off at a tangent, and in the Stromateis, he indulges his natural bent without restraint, even though he is quite aware that it is incompatible with a clear, logical statement of the points at issue. In the chase to which he invites us, we often lose the scent and only come upon it again, as it were, accidentally. He drops aperçus French: "insights" and leaves it to his readers to follow them out at their own discretion. Clement also warns us that the mysteries of which a foretaste is given in the Stromateis are merely preliminary to the greater mysteries which he reserves for another treatise.

Eusebius tells us that the same title was used by Plutarch. Regarding this, Diels says: "He undoubtedly assumes the name of a most noble writer." He adds that the title was also used by Caesellius Vindex under the Emperor Trajan, but it was unknown to Pliny the Elder, who in his preface speaks of the ingenuity shown by the Greeks in their choice of titles: "They have inscribed their works Honeycomb, Cornucopia, Ion, Muses, Pandects, Handbook, Meadow, or Tablets—titles that would justify one in ignoring a summons to court. But when you enter, by the gods and goddesses! you find nothing at all." On the other hand, it is mentioned by Aulus Gellius, an elder contemporary of Clement, whose preface may be compared with the words we have quoted from Clement above: "As I took each book into my hands... or heard anything worth remembering, I would record it, whatever it was, without order or system. I gathered these for the support of my memory, as a kind of storehouse of literature... I titled them Attic Nights, not imitating the clever titles that many other writers of both languages used. For because they had collected varied, miscellaneous, and almost confused learning, they chose the most exquisite titles for that very reason... some inscribed them Muses, others Forests, another Robe, another Cornucopia, another Honeycomb, others Meadows..."